HAGEN

'Hagen' is the 37th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area - 15 km south of Dortmund.
In this place the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr. The population is 200,000.
Hagen was first mentioned about 1200, presumably the name of a farm at the junctions of Volme and Ennepe. The growth of the city began in the 19th century with the mining of coal and the production of steel in the Ruhr Area. 1928 Hagen became a city with more than 100,000 inhabitants. In the city there is the FernUni Hagen, the only German Open University, with approximately 56,000 students (2004/05), making it the largest university in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Contents

Economy

Attractions

Localities

Traffic

Twinning

Personalities

See also

External links

Economy

Owing to the extensive use of water power along the rivers Ruhr, Lenne, Volme and Ennepe, metal processing played an important role in the region of Hagen in and even before the 15th century.
In the 17th and 18th century, textile and steel industries as well as paper producing followed.

Attractions

Hagen is home to the ''Westfälisches Freilichtmuseum Hagen'', or Hagen Westphalian Open-Air Museum, a collection of historic industrial facilities where trades such as printing, brewing, smithing, milling, and many others are represented not simply as static displays, but as living, working operations that visitors may in some cases even be invited to participate in. It is located in the Hagen community of Eilpe. The Historical Center contains the Museum of the City and the Werdringen castle. In the cave Blätterhöhle in Hagen the oldest fossils of modern people in Westphalia and the Ruhr Area were found. They are dated in the early Mesolithicum 10.700 years B.C.

Localities

★ Dahl

★ Emst (4.3 km² – 11,017 citizens)

★ Hohenlimburg (37.0 km² – 31,475 citizens)

★ Priorei (32.6 km² - 5,544 citizens)

★ Rummenohl

★ Halden

★ ... and others

Traffic

The autobahns A1, A45 and A46 touch Hagen.
Hagen has been an important rail junction for the southeastern Ruhr valley since the first rail line opened in 1848. The shunting yard Hagen-Vorhalle is among Germany's largest, and the central station offers connections to the ICE network of Deutsche Bahn as well as to local and S-Bahn services. Since December 2005, Hagen is also the starting point for a new service into Essen, operated by Abellio Rail.
Local traffic is handled by Hagener Straßenbahn (Hagen Tramways), which, despite its name, offers only bus services as the last tramway in Hagen was put out of service in the 1970s. All local rail and bus services operate under the transport association VRR.

Twinning

Hagen has been twinned with these towns:

★ - Ełk (Poland), since 1955 ★ - Liévin (France), since 1960 ★ - Kouvola (Finland), since 1963 ★ - Montluçon (France), since 1965

★ - Berlin-Steglitz/Zehlendorf (Germany), since 1967 ★ - Bruck an der Mur (Austria), since 1975 ★ - Smolensk (Russia), since 1985 ★ - Modi'in (Israel), since 1997

Personalities

★ Sir Charles Hallé (Karl Halle) was born here in 1819

★ Nena (born 24 March 1960) in Hagen), German pop singer

★ Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874-1921), patron of the avant-garde

See also

★ Accumulatoren-Fabrik AFA

External links

★ Official city website